The Chasers on tour!
Mark Labbett, Anne Hegerty and Shaun Wallace on testing their intellect against brainboxes around the world...
Q What was your goal when you set off on the trip? A SHAUN: All three of us were hoping to look at various aspects of intelligence, ranging from child intellect, to intelligence within animals, to new forms of artificial intelligence. Q How did you find travelling together? A ANNE: The boys know that I don’t like travelling, so they were very good at being protective of me when I’d clearly had enough!
A SHAUN: As Chasers and as friends, we’ve always got each other’s back. I thought we got on very well. Q In episode one, you’re in the US taking on animals in various intelligence tests – how was that?
A ANNE: It was particularly interesting encountering Kanzi, a remarkably clever bonobo who picked up how to read from watching it being taught to his mother. He knows about 300 different symbols and we had about 15 minutes to try to learn them. We knew Kanzi was going to beat us, but I don’t think we were humiliated!
Thursday, 9pm ITV Factual
Q In Japan, you explore artificial intelligence. What did you find out? A SHAUN: I pose the question of whether we’ll see the rise of the machines, and if we’ll get to a situation where artificial intelligence will get the better of human understanding… Q Later in the series, you’re up against child geniuses. Was that intimidating? A MARK: I played a chess player, and I’m not that good at chess – so I had no chance!
A ANNE: We bullied Mark into taking on the chess player, because I’m far more useless at chess than Mark is. I was determined to play the Scrabble kid instead!
A SHAUN: I took on a young girl with an IQ of 162 who knew all there was to know about the function of the brain. I got thrashed 15-1! I was grateful I was able to answer one question!